College Student Psychological Distress: Relationship to Self‐Esteem and Career Decision Self‐Efficacy Beliefs

College students experience a number of stressors, such as adjustment to a new environment, postgraduation planning, and the balancing of changing roles and responsibilities. These stressors may contribute to increased rates of psychological distress that have implications for their educational and career development. The purpose of this study was to extend understanding of the nature of the relationships among psychological distress, self‐esteem, and career decision self‐efficacy (CDSE) beliefs. Results from 292 undergraduate students demonstrated support for the proposed hypotheses. Psychological distress negatively related to self‐esteem and to CDSE. Self‐esteem was positively related to, yet distinct from, CDSE, and both self‐esteem and psychological distress contributed unique variance to the prediction of CDSE. Results highlight the importance of attending to student psychological distress in the provision of career counseling services. Future research that centralizes mental health is needed to better understand relationships among career development processes over time and within diverse student populations.     

Fear of childbirth in primiparous Italian pregnant women: The role of anxiety,depression, and couple adjustment

Background

The prevalence of fear of childbirth in pregnant women is described to be about 20–25%, while 6–10% of expectant mothers report a severe fear that impairs their daily activities as well as their ability to cope with labour and childbirth. Research on fear of childbirth risk factors has produced heterogeneous results while being mostly done with expectant mothers from northern Europe, northern America, and Australia.

Does export concentration matter in economic adjustment programs? Evidence from the euro-area

The recent crisis in some euro area countries is intensively fueling the political and economic policy debate about the effectiveness of the applied adjustment programs. This paper aims to contribute to explaining why the results of these programs could be different across countries, flagging the crucial role of exports. In view of recent economic literature about substitution between domestic and foreign sales, helping exports when domestic demand is adjusting, this paper uses panel data techniques to assess the role of the export structure in explaining this substitution effect in the euro area countries. Building a novel indicator for product concentration, the results suggest that domestic demand developments are more relevant to explaining exports in countries with a lower product concentration index (that is, more diversified exports). This contributes to explain why euro area countries under stress registered different economic performance, in particular the clearly less favorable behavior of Greece, where exports structure is concentrated more strongly in some goods and services than in other euro area countries. With different export behavior the final evaluation of the Greek adjustment would be certainly different. These results suggest that export structure should be taken into consideration when designing or evaluating this type of adjustment programs.     

On the performance of two clustering methods for spatial functional data

The performance of two clustering strategies for spatially correlated functional data based on the same measure of spatial dependence is examined and compared. In particular, the role of the spatial dependence computed by the trace-variogram function is analyzed. The main features of both procedures is shown through a simulation study based on a variety of practical scenarios easily encountered in the analysis of spatial functional data. An application on real data based on salinity curves is also presented.     

High-risk sexual behavior among students of a minority-serving university in a community with a high HIV/AIDS prevalence

OBJECTIVE: The authors used a stratified cluster sampling design to inform campus sexually transmitted diseases prevention programs. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: They conducted a cross-sectional study of students (N = 1,130) at a large, urban, minority-serving university in South Florida using the 2004 National College Health Assessment Survey instrument. RESULTS: Of the 1,130 participants, 14.0% reported risky sexual behavior (having more than 1 sexual partner in 1 year and not using a condom the last time they had vaginal intercourse), and 11.9% reported consistent risky sexual behavior (having more than 1 partner in 1 year and not using condoms most or all of the time during the past 30 days). In multivariable analysis, past-month alcohol use had the strongest independent association with both risky and consistent risky sexual behavior. Illicit drug use was marginally significant in both models. CONCLUSIONS: Administrators should address the use of alcohol and other drugs on campus in planning interventions to promote safe sexual behavior.     

New perspectives in historical demography in Latin America

The author outlines developments in the field of historical demography in Latin America. Methodological and theoretical aspects are evaluated, with a focus on the study of aggregate vital series and in-depth analysis of census data. The importance of integrating demographic analysis with social and economic history is emphasized.     

The Impact of Sense of Community in the School,Social Skills,and Exposure to Aggression and Victimization on Students’ Well-Being

Research suggests that sense of community in the school is a promising construct in terms of its ability to promote students’ well-being. However, mechanisms behind and the potential benefits of school sense of community have not been studied in detail. This cross-sectional study tested a model which examined the role of sense of community in the school, social skills, exposure to aggression, and victimization in shaping students’ well-being. The sample consisted of 1076 students from 22 public middle schools and 724 students from 22 public high schools located in the Italian Region of Liguria. Using a Bayesian estimation for a structural equation model, results showed that sense of community in the school directly predicted students’ social skills, exposure to aggression, and well-being and, indirectly (through social skills and exposure to aggression), victimization. In addition, we found that social skills were related to victimization. Finally, results showed that victimization was predicted by exposure to aggression and predicted well-being. The current study suggests that sense of community in the school and social skills are key variables for interventions that aim to prevent aggressive behaviors at school and to increase students’ well-being.     

A sustainable urban regeneration project to protect biodiversity

Urban Ecosystems - The sustainable urban redevelopment project to protect biodiversity was developed to regenerate the external spaces of an ancient rural farmhouse, Villa Framarino, in the...     

On the Choice of the Ridge Parameter: A Maximum Entropy Approach

In this article, a new method to estimate the ridge parameter, based on the ridge trace and an analytical method borrowed from maximum entropy, is presented. The performance of the new estimator is illustrated through a Monte Carlo simulation study and an empirical application to the well-known Portland cement data set.